Golovkin steals another soul, dominates Stevens

Golovkin standing over Stevens moments after landing a double left for the knock down.

When it was announced that Gennady Golovkin (28-0, 25 KOs) would defend his titles against Curtis “Showtime” Stevens (25-4, 18 KOs) I thought, “Good chin check for Golovkin.”

It was and it wasn’t.

While Stevens did land several hard, flush punches during the fight he was tremendously outgunned.

While it’s true that despite Golovkin was winning the early rounds, you felt uneasy because of Stevens power. At any time he could have unleashed a hellish punch or combination of punches and left us wondering. Even with all that power as the fight wore on that threat of Stevens landing a big shot diminished significantly.

Golovkin controlled nearly ever round, with round 4 possibly being a Stevens round, if only because it appeared that Golovkin took his foot off the pedal ever so slightly.

The fight was a testament to his ability, not just physically, but mentally. He never stops coming. Always sticks to the fight plan and makes adjustments throughout. With the exception of Floyd Mayweather, I personally think Golovkin is the smartest man inside the ring.

Stevens tried early, but as Golovkin switched from jab heavy to body shots by the 6th round you could see on Stevens’ face that his will was being broken.

The 8th round was a culmination of Golovkin’s fight plan.

Golovkin stalked Stevens throughout the round landing hard punches to the head and beating the life out of Stevens’ body. The body shots were the telling shots as the round came to under a minute causing Stevens to basically cover up and backpedal to close out the round.

When he walked back to his corner the ref and his own corner called the fight. It was a good stoppage. Had the fight continued Stevens would have been bludgeoned.

Stevens did come to fight, but despite his power was massively outgunned by a fighter in Golovkin who is just on another level.

Despite outlanding Stevens 293 to 97 Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez said, “Stevens was tougher than we thought he was going to be. There are still things we need to work on as far as Gennady’s patience and setting up his punches, but the good part is we got the win and have stuff to work on.”

Golovkin couldn’t be more pleased with his performance;

“I give myself a grade of a 10,” Golovkin said after the fight was stopped. “I am ready to fight anybody, but specifically I want to fight Sergio Martinez.”

In his post fight interview in the ring with HBO’s Max Kellerman he also mentioned Peter Quillin’s name along with Martinez.

Watching Quillin’s performance against Gabriel Rosado I would think he might want to avoid a clash with Golovkin.

His promotional company, K2 Promotions, already has a date set aside for his next fight; Feb. 1 in Monte Carlo against TBD.